The Victoria athlete placed fifth at a triathlon World Cup event Saturday in Tongyeong, South Korea.

Sweetland, 19, needs a Top 8 finish at the world championships in Vancouver on June 8 to earn a spot for Beijing.

On Saturday, the former world junior champion covered the 1.5-kilometre swim, 37.5 km bike ride and 10 km run in a combined time of one hour, 51 minutes and six seconds.

Samantha Warriner of New Zealand won in a time of 1:49:49, Britain's Hollie Avil was second (1:49:59) while Czech Vendula Frintova took third (1:50:21).

Lauren Groves of Vancouver, already named to the Olympic team, finished 13th.

In the men's race, Edmonton's Paul Tichelaar finished sixth, Brent McMahon of Victoria was 16th and Kyle Jones of Oakville, Ont., was 20th.

Tim Don of Great Britain claimed his fifth World Cup win in 1:38:14.

Athens Olympic silver medallist Bevan Docherty of New Zealand finished second, six seconds back, just edging out Germany's Jan Frodeno in a photo finish.

With files from the Canadian Press

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